Points derived from the ḥadith
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The Prophet’s being prevented occurred during the ʿUmrah of al-Hudaybiyah in the sixth year after the Hijrah, when the idolaters barred him from entering Mecca; so he shaved his head, slaughtered the sacrificial animals, and the following year performed the ʿUmrah of Compensation.
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Between the ʿUmrah of al-Hudaybiyah and the ʿUmrah of Compensation nothing of the iḥrām prohibitions applied to him, for he had fully exited the state of consecration.
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The jurists say that if people, through mistake, stand at ʿArafah on the eighth or the tenth (of Dhū al-Ḥijjah), their standing is valid by consensus, because the Prophet ﷺ said, “The pilgrimage is on the day the people perform the pilgrimage.” However, if they stood on the eighth and learned of their error before the time elapsed, they must stand again within the prescribed period.
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The Exalted said, “If you are prevented, then offer whatever sacrificial animal you can” [Qur’an 2:196]. Al-Shāfiʿī stated that the exegetes unanimously hold that the verse was revealed about the blockade at al-Hudaybiyah. It is authentically reported that during the treaty of al-Hudaybiyah the Prophet ﷺ said, “Stand, slaughter your animals, then shave.” Releasing the pilgrims from iḥrām was necessary, for remaining in it entailed great hardship, which the Law seeks to remove. Al-Wazīr observed that the scholars agree that being obstructed by an enemy permits one to exit iḥrām.
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If a pilgrim, at the outset of iḥrām, stipulates, “My place of release is wherever I am prevented,” and is then prevented, he may exit without any penalty—no sacrifice and no make-up—whether the obstruction is illness, an enemy, loss of provisions, or anything else. This is the view of the two Imams, al-Shāfiʿī and Aḥmad (may Allah have mercy on them).
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Ibn al-Qayyim said: the person who is prevented is liable for neither a sacrifice nor a make-up, because the Lawgiver did not command either. This is borne out by the settlement at al-Hudaybiyah: they were prevented that year, and only some performed ʿumrah with him the next year, which shows that the later ʿumrah was not a compensatory act.